An autopsy survey of clinical and anatomic diagnoses associated with alcoholism

Alcoholism, a major cause of hospitalization and death in the United States, has been associated with multiple organ system dysfunctions. A systematic search by computer was made of the diagnoses in 35,579 autopsies performed from 1949 to 1972 at the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center. Alcoholic and control cases (total, 8,186) were matched by age, sex, race, and appropriate date of death. Many major differences in diagnosis between the two groups were found. A fourfold increase in the annual frequency of alcoholism at autopsy was noted during the period under study. The mean age at death was ten years less in the alcoholism group compared with the total population submitted to autopsy. This survey supports the hypothesis that the clinical and autopsy diagnosis in alcoholic and nonalcoholic patients are significantly different in frequency.